It's official: Jay Carter, who's unique compound helicopter/aircraft designs for the general aviation market have been a fixture at Oshkosh events for years but never quite ready for prime time, has gained a whole lotta clout.

Carter is now tightly coupled to the future of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) giant AAI, a subsidiary of Textron Systems. AAI builds the Shadow UAV and other systems for the US military. The single-engine Shadow family has accumulated more than 450,000 flght hours for a variety of military operators.

The two signed an agreement on Monday giving AAI the rights to Carter's slowed rotor / compound (SR/C) intellectual property for UAVs, and Carter gets Textron (which includes AAI and Bell Helicopter) expertise in designing, building and testing a four-place civilian version of the gyrocopter / aircraft hybrid which has a rotor that slows down as speed builds up, cutting drag while the aircraft's fixed wing does the anti-gravity work..

A prototype of the four-place version / UAV will be flying by early next year, says AAI.

Here's an AeroTVnetwork video from Oshkosh this summer showing flight in an earlier prototype.

The aircraft would compete head-on with Gulfstream's new G650, designed to be the fastest (M0.925) and longest-range (7,000nm) purpose-built business jet to date.

Here's why I think this will happen very soon,

In a fascinating article reported by Bloomberg today, Bombardier Aerospace Pierre Beaudoin said several things that made a little lightbulb go off in my head.

Beaudoin's information, coupled with an offhand remark made to me during a recent trip to a vendor, points to Bombardier taking leap early next year.

Here are the key parts of the Beaudoin piece:

- "Bombardier is considering building what would be its largest business jet to compete with a model from Gulfstream as order cancellations slow and growth picks up in Asia, said Beaudoin."

- "Do we intend to leave space to the Gulfstream 650?" Beaudoin said in an interview at company headquarters in Montreal. "Absolutely not."  NOTE: Even in the down economy, Gulfstream's order book for the G650 is holding at more than 200 orders for the $60 million jet. We'll get a better feel for how firm some of those are after first flight is completed later this year, when a  substantial progress payment will be due. 

- "There is a demand for a 7,000-nautical-mile jet that offers good speed and comfort on long distances," the CEO said.

Below is a stack-up of how Bombardier's current flagship, the Global Express XRS compares with the G650... 

- Beaudoin declined to say when a decision on the larger business jet would be made. (Analyst Richard) Aboulafia said a new Bombardier model probably wouldn't be ready before 2017 at the earliest, giving Gulfstream a head start of five years.

Here's the juicy part....

When visiting a GE engine component provider recently, I was told that Bombardier would announce the winner of a business jet engine competition in 1Q 2009, and that this particular provider was working with GE as part of a proposal to offer the new "NG34" engine for the program.

The NG34 is a modernized version of the CF34 engine that powers several Bombardier business jets and a huge number of Bombardier and Embraer regional jets,  The latest version of the engine, the CF34-10, generates up to 20,000lb of thrust, putting it in the ballpark for what would be needed to meet or exceed the G650's speed. 

And, GE has said the NG34 would be ready for service in 2015, which would match Aboulafia's 2017 entry-into-service guesstimate.

Given the thrust range needed to match or beat the G650's, and taking the assumption that the aircraft will have just two engines, it would appear to be an engine supplier race limited to two entrants - Rolls-Royce and GE.

I'm just saying...

That pilot, Charles Cummings, died Friday November 6 when his Jabiru-powered Zodiac (N538CJ) broke up in flight and tumbled into a field in Arkansas. According to the NTSB preliminary report, Cummings' was on VFR a cross-country out of the Sharp County Regional Airport (KCVK) at about 0930 that morning and had probably flown to either Flippin or Mountain View, Arkansas as an intermediate destination about 50mi to the southwest. He was likely on his way back to KCVK when the aircraft broke apart near Agnos (about 10mi west of KCVK) at around 1100h that morning.

According to the NTSB, the right wing assembly that landed in a pond marked the beginning of a 600ft-long debris field oriented on an 035deg magnetic heading. Next came the left wing, 200ft further along and the fuselage, empennage, engine and propeller at the end point. "There were no ground scars identified between the right wing and the main wreckage that could be associated with the left or right wing, empennage or fuselage," notes the investigator.

The NTSB has taken a special interest in the CH601XL, in both kit and factory-built form based on a series of fatal accidents, as previously reported in this blog. 

The FAA and the manufacturer both took decisive action on Saturday, November 7.

For the FAA's part, it issued a special airworthiness information bulletin revealing the results of an airworthiness investigation it launched on the model in April and informing operators to follow a companion safety directive issued by AMD.

Here's what the FAA found, verbatim, in its review:

• Wing structure: FAA analysis shows bending loads used to design the wing structure were non-conservative and the basic static strength of the CH601XL/CH650 does not appear to meet the intent of the ASTM standards for a 600kg (1320 lb) airplane, given the current flight envelope in the Pilot Operating Handbook
• Structural Stability: Other aviation authorities have noted the presence of buckling in the wing structure, including in the center section. Such structural instabilities can have a significant effect on static strength and flutter characteristics.
• Flutter: Our detailed review of available flutter analysis reports was inconclusive. However, accident photos clearly indicated flutter was present during the in-flight structural failures. The FAA believes flutter may either be a first order root cause of in-flight structural failure or a secondary cause after some initial wing structural deformation or twisting.
• Airspeed calibration: Calibration procedures do not appear to adequately account for basic static pressure source error due to the location of the static port. This could lead to potential airspeed indication anomalies, particularly since the CH601XL/650 derivatives can be delivered/built with several different airspeed indicators installed or without an indicator at all. The situation could lead to the potential of operating the airplane above the maneuver speed and/or the design cruise speed, potentially leading to structural failure.
• Stick force characteristics: Flight test data from foreign authorities indicates at aft center of gravity the stick forces become very light. The FAA believes this may be a contributing factor in structural failure accidents if coupled with operations over gross weight, at speeds higher than VA, and/or for aircraft loaded improperly. In such conditions, it would be very easy to dynamically load the CH601XL/CH650 wing beyond its design structural load limit.

"In order to prevent potential catastrophic structural failure, we strongly recommend that all owners and operators of Zodiac CH601XL/CH650 comply with actions outlined in a forthcoming Aircraft Manufacturing & Design, LLC (AMD) Safety Directive / Safety Alert to address the above-referenced concerns before further flight," the FAA concluded.

AMD's companion directive calls for several modifications to the aircraft "before further flight" includes installing aileron counterbalance weights and verifying certain aspects of the airspeed indicator.

In September, Eurocontrol warned operators of a new breed of kite being used by ships for auxiliary propulsion.

Today, a company called Highest Wind is asking the FAA for exemptions from several rules controlling the use of moored balloons in US airspace. Highest Wind is marketing a 300lb, 40ft tri-wing glider that trades lift for electrical power.

The system, which Highest Wind says will be available in 2011, creates power from lift as the tethered glider flies. The system automatically lauches the aircraft when winds allow, and returns the vehicle to its pad when conditions are not favourable. Generally, the glider can rise high as the base of controlled airspace -- either 700ft or 1,200ft above the ground, depending on the location, to take advantage of the winds.

Highest Wind says the system can generate about 30kW of power in any weather, day or night, as it cycles the tether up and down, spinning a flywheel in the land-based power trailer.

A fly in the ointment however is the FAA's moored balloon rules, which limit the devices from flying in visibility of less than 3mi, higher than 500ft below the base of clouds or more than 500ft above the ground, requirements meant to provide visual separation with low-flying aircraft. Highest Wind wants an exemption from all three.

In addition, the company wants relief on rules requiring the device to be lighted for night operations or to have the mooring line carry colored pennants or streamers attached at intervals not more than 50ft apart above 150ft.

Russia-InfoCentre has published a somewhat cryptic article that shows the country is still very much involved in the civil supersonic transport game...

Russian engineers from Central Institute of Aerohydrodynamics performed a supersonic cruise research for supersonic passenger aircrafts, flying over densely populated lands. 

For this purpose they cooperated with "Sukhoi New Civil Technologies" company and Central Institute of Aviation Motors. Joint think-tank developed preliminary aerodynamic configurations for commercial supersonic aircrafts with cabins of various comfort levels and seats for 4-50 passengers. 

Engineers also elaborated recommendations for appearance of mentioned advanced aircrafts and estimated aerodynamic, general, performance and ecological characteristics: airport noise and sonic boom level during supersonic cruising. The research shows that there exists a possibility to make a sonic boom much lower than it is now, and fulfilling airport noise stabdards also isn't a problem.

Like the US and Europe, Russian engineers are focusing on environmental factors, including methods to drastically reduce sonic boom signatures at ground level during cruise, and making takeoff and landing noise acceptable to airport communities.

NASA is investing more in mid-term supersonic technologies as well.

Thanks to the $1 billion in economic stimulus money it received from the US government, the agency has recently awarded contracts to Boeing and to Lockheed Martin to investigate various technologies related to supersonic commercial aircraft to enter service in the 2018 - 2020 timeframe.

At top is a picture of SAI's Quiet Supersonic Transport, which was designed under contract by Lockheed's Skunk Works team.

  

Rockwell Collins continues to perfect its first-generation surface management system in its labs in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Honeywell meanwhile has its first generation aural alerting system already on the market and is working on its second gen. More on that at a later date.

Phase one of Rockwell Collins system, an airport awareness and alerting function, is set to go live in 2011 in Bombardier's Global Vision update for the Global Express line and on Gulfstream's new mid-cabin G250 business jet.

Kirschen Seah, principle systems engineer for advanced concepts, commercial systems for Rockwell Collins described various aspects of the system to journalists at the company's advanced development labs in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on 25 September 2009.

Along with five aural alerts -- three for departure (wrong runway, not a runway, runway too short) and two for landing (not a runway, runway too short), the software highlights in cyan the runway selected by pilots in the FMS and displays intuitive runway numbers and arrows that indicate take-off direction on the airport map on the multifunction display.  

The aim of the package is simple - to increase situational awareness to the point where a pilot will not taxi where he or she should be and that the selected runway for takeoff or landing is the correct one.

Phase two of the package, slated for entry into service at a later time, will include the ability to highlight a taxi route on the display and phase three will include other airport traffic through ADS-B surveillance.

Speaking to As-The-Croft-Flies at the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) annual trade show in Orlando this week, Clark said his engineers are experimenting with a variety of new designs, including spiroids, forward-swept winglets and split winglets, devices that extend above and below the wing, all of which will be flight tested.

The initial spiroid design, which API first tested on a Gulfstream II in 2001, was said to reduce drag by as much 10% in cruise, up several points from what the API's trademark blended winglets can provide. Clark did not provide details as to what the other designs might yield.

API is now prepping to fly newly designed spiroids on a company Falcon 50 by year's end as part of a $2.06 million earmark being administered by the US Department of Transportation's Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA).

RITA is also paying API $600,000 for fuel efficiency data captured during the 2001 tests as part of an effort to "demonstrate the modeled fuel burn and emissions implications of the spiroid winglet technolgy on commercial aviation in the US", according to contract award document.

API has already done some analysis of spiroids on large aircraft like the Boeing 747-400, as is shown in this promotional picture from aeronautical engineering firm, Analytical Methods Inc. (AMI).

Clark says data from the 2001 flights include performance information for a baseline aircraft (without spiroids) followed by the same data for the aircraft equipped with spiroids.

The new spiorids, designed with the latest computational fluid dynamics programs, are currently being manufactured, says Clark, adding that the next series of tests will include taking data in more of the flight envelope, including stalls.

A video of a 2001 test flight is shown below.

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Along with thre 14.1in diagonal WXGA high resolution wide aspect ratio displays across the flight deck, the G3000 will include a new touch screen vehicle management system.

Garmin's manager of OEM sales Ben Kowalski describes the system to As the Croft Flies at the NBAA annual convention in Orlando.

The first of what I hope will be many in-flight product reviews on As The Croft Flies...

Garmin Pilot MyCast - The weather world in your hand...

Having access to a world of real-time weather and flight planning data on my cell phone, courtesy of Garmin's Pilot MyCast application, makes me feel as though I've been flying "blind" for the past 31 years.

I began primary flight training in the summer of 1978, and between then and now, I have launched on a thousand flights without -- I realize now - pretty much ever having a truly comprehensive, one-stop shop, big picture view of the environmental conditions into which I was departing.

The change agent was my introduction in August to Garmin's Pilot MyCast application. Though it's available on a variety of handheld devices, I started with a Blackberry Curve that Garmin graciously allowed me to try out for a few months.

The offer couldn't have come at a better time as late summers in Maryland, where I own a 1/3 share in a Piper Archer II (N43756), are all about thunderstorms and the effects of tropical storms that sometimes evolve into hurricanes.

Along with flight plan filing services and an access to an on-line AOPA airports directory, complete with airport diagrams, Pilot MyCast gives you access to a great deal of very valuable weather data, including NEXRAD, visible and infrared satellite views, prognostic charts, lightning strike data, Sigmets, Airmets, pilot reports and local airport conditions.

I realize all of these products have been available on-line in various forms as of the past few years, but the fact that the computer stayed home while I went to the airport meant that it just wasn't convenient, so I didn't bother.

Having Pilot MyCast on the BlackBerry loaned to me by Garmin, made the proverbial light bulb go off in my head in terms of a never-before-imagined form of situational awareness with respect to the weather.

Garmin acquired Digital Cyclone, developers of Pilot My-Cast, in April 2007. The company had launched its first software application in late 2002. Garmin quickly moved to upgrade the service, adding (in chronological order):

• Flight plan filing through DTC or CSC DUATs - April 2007
• Graphical winds aloft, PIREPS, and area forecasts - July 2007
• NOTAMS and support for Blackberry devices - July 2008
• AOPA's Airport Directory and Canadian weather - April 2009
• Airport diagrams, STARs, SIDs, and airways - July 2009
• Announced iPhone and iPod Touch capability by Q4 2009 - July 2009

An immediate benefit played out on an evening in early September when my partner Reid and I went out to do some pattern work at Annapolis Lee Airport (KANP), where our Archer is based.

A visual look west, the direction from which most of our summertime convective weather arrives, showed the normal hazy foreboding we see most afternoon and early evenings. However, bringing up Pilot MyCast, then selecting Wx Briefing, then Radar, brought up the animated NEXRAD sequences that showed that a nasty looking cell, painted in red, was approaching from the west.

Like the satellite images, NEXRAD can be zoomed in or zoomed out and put into animation mode, which was very helpful in revealing that some good clear weather was behind the large cell, which at this point was dropping torrents onto our hangar. I then called Flight Service to get a second opinion about the clear area behind the cell, which the briefer did.

Pilot-MyCast also has a flight planning mode that provides trip times with no wind and plots the course on geographical weather charts, which is very useful for viewing both real-time weather and prognostic charts. With the AOPA airports directory included, you can also get a look at the airports you'll be visiting in advance, both from a data and pictorial runway layout standpoint.

Here is a video Garmin has made to show how portions of MyCast works. You can also download a user's manual from the Garmin website.

As for cost, I paid $10 to download the program to my LG Shine phone through my cellular provider, AT&T. Beware that you'll pay a good bit for bits if you don't have a comprehensive data plan - I was paying $2 per megabyte and had racked up $20 in charges over a one-month billing cycle, in part due to a mysterious once-a-day data transfer that I've yet to figure out. Garmin says MyCast only updates its files real-time when the service is used.

Regardless, I have since switched to an unlimited data plan for $15 a month, which allows me to use Pilot MyCast as much as I like, which is very often.

Rating: On a scale from 1-10, I give Pilot MyCast a 10.

I recently walked through Detroit's Metropolitan Airport as part of a connecting flight from Washington DC to Cedar Rapids.

To catch my outbound flight, I took the underground connector and discovered what I think might be Michigan's best kept secret -- a pyschedelic show that accompanies you for nearly a quarter of a mile as you ride the people-mover through the tunnel.

I liked it so much I rode back and forth several times, and still made my connection.

Thanks for the short respite from airline travel, Detroit Metro!

Company officials launched the new venture today at the posh 21 Club in New York City. Here's the video describing the new face of the 10-year-old company.

A week and two days ago, I was a happy camper.

As I described in this blog, a Northwest Airlines rep in Winnipeg called me that day and said they'd found the wallet I'd lost the week before in Cedar Rapids and that they'd mail it back to me.

So..... it's a week and two days later. Where's my freaking wallet?

The credit cards have been replaced, but not my license. I'm tired of using my passport for identification, Northwest. 

And the police will likely not be too understanding if they pull me over for speeding, not that I would dream of being a rebel and speeding on the Capital Beltway on my commute. (Yes, 80mph is SLOW on the Capital Beltway)

I can see it now...

Police: "SIr, can I see your license and registration?"

Me: "Uhhhh. Northwest Airlines has my license and they won't give it back to me..."

Police: "Fly United next time. Out of the car, loser!"

The adventure started 0814h Monday morning, when four other aviation journalists and myself were whisked away by Gulfstream, care of media relations chief Robert Baugniet, on a G550 (NG550GA) time machine from Washington Dulles Airport (IAD) non-stop to Tel Aviv (TLV) for the rollout of Gulfstream's new G250 super midsize business jet the next day.

Gulfstream builds the G250 and its two other mid-cabin jets, the G150 and the G200, in partnership with Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI). IAI constructs the aircraft at its facilities at the Ben Gurion Airport in Lod, Israel (about 15 miles east of Tel Aviv) and flies the green machines to Gulfstream's completion plant in Dallas, Texas, for the interiors and paint.

Below is slideshow of some pictures from the rollout, as well as an IAI plant tour, which included the government-owned company's Bedek Aviation, electronic warfare and unmanned aircraft operations. I also stuck in some shots of the view from my 10th floor room at the Tel Aviv Hilton.

Below that is a video I took of the powered-on rollout, followed by an interview I did with Gulfstream mid-cabin programs research and development director, Mark Kohler, discussing some of selling features of the $24 million G250. Please excuse the wind noise! 

Eighteen hours after arriving in Israel, we were back on the G550 enroute to IAD. Total time of the round trip was 40h, with approximately 22h spent on the G550, a time made very productive with the broadband multi-link service which gave us connectivity from IAD to Rome on the way out, and from Rome all the way back to IAD on the return leg.

Thanks to Robert Baugniet and Gulfstream for the opportunity to cover the event.

Two months ago to the day, it was a Cirrus SR22.

Today is was a Mooney M20M Bravo, N400DE, powered by a turbocharged Lycoming TIO-540 and registered to N400DE LLC of Ada, Michigan.

Based on flight tracking information from FlightAware.com, the lone pilot had departed Grand Rapids, Michigan around 0840h central time this morning, headed north and levelled off at 25,000ft by 0912h. At about 0937h, the aircraft reversed course. Pilots must use full-time supplemental oxygen above 14,000ft.

At some point, the pilot also stopped communicating with air traffic control which prompted the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) to launch F-16 fighters which met up with the plane near Muncie, Indiana at 1030h to check out the situation. 

NORAD says Mooney pilot, who had departed Grand Rapids on a post-maintenance flight, was "unresponsive". The fact that the plane was on a post-maintenance checkout flight may very well explain the course reversal and some erratic indications on the transponder return for altitude -- the aircraft could not have physically moved 11,000ft in less than one minute, as the FlightAware data suggests.

At approximately 1105h, the plane's speed decreased and it's altitude began to drop, likely indicating the selected fuel tank had run dry. It crashed near Winchester, Indiana at approximately 1140h, according to NORAD.

In May, I left my beloved BlackBerry Edge at a kiosk for Air Canada check-in in Montreal. TSA tried to help me find it after the jarring realization that the buzzing on my hip was phantom. No luck.

Three days later, I get a phone call at my home in Maryland, in the US, from a gentleman named Guy (pronounced Gey in that region) who says he found my "Blackberry or whatever it is" and turned it in at the Calgary transit station. Gey was my hero.

Fastforward to 24 September. I was traveling from DC to Cedar Rapids to visit Rockwell Collins. The seat on my Northwest/Delta CRJ200 flight from the leg from Detroit to Cedar Rapids was so crammed that my wallet -- with ID, credit cards, all the essentials -- popped out of my front pocket at some point in deplaning. I realized the missing gear a bit too late, and once again, TSA tried to help but wouldn't let me retrace my steps back to the airplane. Security reasons. My friends at Rockwell Collins graciously carried me to my appointments for the next 24h.

Believe it or not, you actually can get through security and board a plane even with absolutely no identification. TSA recommended I get to the airport early the next day for my flight home. Once there, I had to fill out a "verification of identity" form. The TSA supervisor made a phone call, then asked me, based on my name and address, etc, some basic questions intended to prove I was who I say I was. Things like, "Tell me your home phone". It was actually very easy, and may have been helped by the fact that I was wearing a suit, and not the ragged outfit and flip-flops I usually travel in. 

Once home, I cancelled my credit cards. Getting a new license would be a hassle, but I put that off. 

Long story short, I get a call from Northwest Airlines yesterday (9/29), five days after losing my wallet.

Guess where it turned up? Yep. Canada.

This time my lost was found in Winnipeg, completely intact.

Thanks Canada!